When I hear of someone wearing clip on earrings, I think of the inauthentic. Clip on bow ties, clip on art, clip on shoes, clip on pants. And I think of someone too timid to have their ears pierced. I wore a gold amethyst earring in my left ear for five years and lost it when I had to surrender it so that a surgical procedure could go forward. Clip-on earrings mirror the inauthentic. The variety of earrings available for wear is phenomenal. One is confronted by over choice. Try a set of black earrings with black dress. What a dramatic effect. But then one can go to pearl drop earrings, cross earrings, gold earrings, pink earrings, and even crystal earrings.  But what is the authentic use of earrings?  I am thinking of something on the order of The Girl with the pearl earring.  She was a peasant girl whom Vandemeer, the Dutch artist, selected as a model for his art work. He worked with her to produce the most striking poses and images with her wearing the pearl earring. In the process, she took an interest in his techniques of creating art.  She learned basic colors and how to blend them. She learned to recognize color patterns in nature. As she worked with Vandemeer, sexual tension built between them but they never moved their relationship to a physical plane. They were both rooted in the world of art. There is little if any place in the world of art for the inauthentic nature of clip on earrings.

When I went to the jewelry shop in the French Quarter I was a bit nervous. I did not know how much the piercing would hurt. Would it be a ripping effect? A sudden tear? A sawing effect? And on another plane, why was I doing this? How immanent was the possibility of an infection?  Raven was there to answer my questions. The whole procedure was carried out in antiseptic conditions and I was given a brochure which outlined. The care one must follow after the piercing. I felt more confident after learning the precautions. And the piercing itself?  Well, it was more like an insect sting. Not a bee sting, not an ant sting, but something like a cross of the two. I had to learn how to wash the pierced ear and how to slide on the earring and to take it off. When Iwalked into my class the next day, students got a big kick out of the earring. They asked me why I did it and   I replied that I had always wanted to be a pirate. It was the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. For a while during the 60s, it was popular to say that the selection of the left or right ear lobe was a sexual identification. When I asked about this view, the clinician said this was no longer the case. It did not matter which ear lobe I selected. Somehow it felt better on my left ear and this is the ear I went with. After a few months I returned to the shop and looked around for other choices. I could of course change the earring depending on my mood or occasion and I would often mix and match and have fun doing it. So I went to the shop and explored more options. I experimented with black earrings, with pearl drop earrings, with cross earrings (and here there were seemingly endless choices), gold earrings, jewelry earrings ...even pink earrings, star earrings and my favorite...crystal earrings.

Some of my friends wore an earring in both ears. But I preferred to wear one in just one ear. I liked the imbalanced look. It is called contextualism, a view that values conflict, for out of conflict new views can arise. So even the clip-on earring projects’ a kind of discovery. In contrast to an organic view which would stress integration and reconciliation. The clip on earring is a junk American approach to communication through art. It is throw away culture and quickie culture. The clip on earring is easier to put on and take off and it is often made with cheap materials and cheaply designed...garish and overwrought. But this you see represents a valid contextual point of view. While I identify with the art form made of excellent material and fashioned in excellent design, I can nevertheless see the value of adopting a whole new perspective so that what once struck one as cheap now appears to them innovative. Such is the value of clip on earrings.